according.to.kim

Highlights of the week

• noticing that there's a little light outside when I get up in the morning.
• being invited to spend an evening (mid-April) with friends I haven't seen for a long time.
• finding a little gift envelope from Sophia on my bedside table, labeled "do not open for 3 weeks" because it's for Easter (and then this week I noticed she had scribbled out the "3" and put a "2" there).
• finishing Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert -- although I'll miss reading it. (Loved it!) It took me three months to read it since I only read it during my short bus ride on weekday mornings.
• seeing my aunt in the hospital on Thursday who looked like she was doing well after her Monday surgery. I took Georgia with me and she sat on my lap so quietly -- not a peep the whole time we were there. (It was a little odd, actually!)
• seeing my parents-in-law after they arrived home safely from Texas (after four months away, and some terrible highway conditions on the way home).
• seeing my cousin and his wife at nine-months pregnant (they were due Mar 26) and sending some baby things home with them.
• getting three more months of photos printed and slipped into storage binders (albums). I'm on a roll!
• looking through photos from our Thanksgiving 2007 trip to Canmore (+Harvey Heights, Moraine Lake, and Lake Louise). I didn't realize how much I love these photos. So glad to have them printed now.
• seeing Sophia's latest graphic designs. She made a booklet called "My designs" in which she drew a distinctly different pattern or design on eight pages, and another oil pastel drawing I think is pretty cool (I should take a photo before it gets lost).
• attending Neil's mom's birthday party at L&Bs on Saturday evening. It was a really nice evening, and great to see some relatives we haven't seen for quite some time -- as well as those we see more often!
• watching Madeline and a new friend having fun together Sunday afternoon, especially when they were swinging back-to-back on a double swing outside in the sunshine.
• getting lots of big smiles and cooing from a friend's four-month-old baby.
• visiting with my Aunt Bev, Aunt Janet, and cousin Alex at the hospital on Sunday. I took Madeline this time. It was nice to catch them all there, especially since my cousin was heading out to Vancouver (then Portland, OR) that evening and my aunts would likely be off to Weyburn the next day.
• {finally, how do I say this...? because it is not a highlight in the normal sense, but I wish to include it here because it was a very important part of last week and it affected me greatly...} attending the most fitting Celebration of Life/funeral I have ever been to -- and witnessing the huge outpouring of love for the person who is no longer with us and for all the family and friends he left to mourn. Absolutely heartbreaking.

Once again...

I simply cannot write highlights tonight. It's been a crazy tough week and I'm tired. It would take far too long for me to write a coherent list right now. I'll be back tomorrow or the next day.

Highlights of the week

• dancing with Madeline at Pioneer Village on Tuesday evening. It was nice to be able to do that with her -- although she made me hold her hand through the two dances (reel and light jig), which is difficult and not how we do these dances! (Also, I really wish I could perform without feeling so dreadfully nervous! We were dancing for Alzheimer's patients. Why would I feel nervous about this?!)
• going to soccer registration and the preschool open house on Wednesday evening and being reminded that even though we live in a city (a small one, mind you), our community is pretty close knit; almost like a small town. At both of these things, I saw many other parents I know from the girls' school and Girl Guides. It's nice.
• hearing that Madeline really enjoyed the Sparks day camp she attended on Saturday, especially since I didn't stay with her and none of her closest Sparks friends were there. When Neil picked her up, she said she wished it was longer (it was four hours).
• hearing that an item I donated to a silent auction (a bundle of Epicure Selections products) garnered quite a bit of interest and therefore resulted in a good donation for the cause (a relative who is recovering from a serious brain injury).
• selecting and printing six months of photos from my backlog of unprinted digital photos. I didn't get any photos printed the previous week, so this means I was able to catch up to my goal of printing three-months worth per week. (I would not normally be able to do six months in a week; however, I found that getting lost in my old photos helped take my mind off sad things; whereas, regular housework didn't do that for me.)
• having my own little entourage when I was shopping in Mark's Work Wearhouse on Sunday (I love their cotton sweaters!). It just seemed comical to have this trail of four girls from tallest to smallest following close behind me wherever I walked. (Bronwyn was with us quite a bit on the weekend as her mom was ill with influenza; a strain not in our flu shots; be careful out there!)
• attending our cousin Gabriel's first birthday party on Sunday afternoon. It was a fun gathering and little Gabriel is so adorable. We all had a good time. Oh, and the homemade vanilla ice cream was wonderful!

Highlights postponed

Before I can write another word on this blog, I have to acknowledge that an enormous tragedy occurred this past week which left a friend of mine and her young children without a husband and father. My heart goes out to them... (uggh; those words seem incredibly inadequate right now). In light of this, everything I do and say and write seems rather pointless and trivial, and it doesn't feel right to express anything good or happy.

At the same time, I wish to acknowledge -- perhaps I must acknowledge -- that, in spite of all the bad, there are still good and happy things in this world, and I still wish to record the things I would normally record. So, I do have some highlights from this past week and I will share them tomorrow or the next day. One thing I always try to do is pay attention and take note of the good things in my life and I think it is wise to continue this practice -- especially at this time.

Too cute not to share

Hope you had a great Saint Patrick's Day!

Highlights of the week

• donating our compact stereo to a charity collecting items to be sent to Mwanza, Tanzania (see wiki, map). We hadn't used it for a couple of years, and I'm very happy to donate it to a good cause (see related news) and free up space in my house at the same time.
• getting some homework done for my Library of Memories. It's next to impossible to find large chunks of time to work on this, so I try to spend a few minutes on it each day. At least I like working with my photos, so motivation isn't a problem!
• reading Sophia and Madeline's report cards. I am so proud of them! It was Madeline's first real report card and she is doing very well; "Independent" in just about everything. Sophia is doing very well too; she improved on almost every item from the first to second report (she mainly needs to work on completing assignments punctually and working neatly -- certainly no surprise to us as she usually puts off her homework and then rushes through it after a tearful battle). Both teachers wrote many positive comments.
• attending the annual mother-daughter Spark Sleepover with Madeline. I will admit to feeling a little grumpy beforehand about all the time it would take (about 24 hours), but I did enjoy it. The event was very well organized and tons of fun for the girls (thanks in part to the fabulous weather!). Highlights for me were the potluck supper on Friday, snow-shoeing in Wascana park on Saturday, and seeing Madeline enjoy herself. (Note to self: Remember this next year when you're going for the fourth year in a row!)
• enjoying the gorgeous weather on the weekend. I think it was extra special after this terrible winter. And what perfect timing for the Spark Sleepover! The girls played outside Friday evening and twice on Saturday.
• getting Sophia's brand new dance dress just in time for her performance on Sunday. Between Wednesday and Sunday afternoon (the girls were measured Tuesday evening), a local seamstress (Fashions by Gloria) made four shawls, hemmed the skirt and sleeves of four dresses, and applied the crest and trim (skirt, sleeves, and neck) to all the dresses. She did a great job!
• seeing the girls dance at Spring Free From Racism. Madeline danced the Reel with two of her classmates, while Sophia and Bronwyn danced the Single Jig together. They did well! (And after 3.5 years with the same blue and white costumes, it was exciting to see them in their new dresses!)
• eating great food and watching excellent entertainment at Spring Free. We love this event. I totally enjoyed all the performances we saw over the 3+ hours we were there, and the food was delicious! I had a Filipino noodle dish with egg rolls and Korean spicy pork with sticky rice. As usual, the girls went for Ukranian perogies -- but of course they're awesome too!

Giving myself a break

After the mother-daughter Spark Sleepover this weekend, and Sophia and Madeline dancing at 6:00 p.m. today (both of which are ten times more work for the parents than for the participant/performers!), plus doing housework whenever I had a chance this weekend, I'm far too tired to write up my highlights of the week. Hopefully tomorrow night.

March 12 of 12

My twelve photos from March 12. It's a good thing Neil and the girls took some photos while I was at work because I would've had a hard time coming up with twelve on my own. Work days can be a bit boring. And this day in particular was not a great day for me. I was in a bad mood for various reasons, but I'm glad the photos don't reflect that. I look forward to the 12th being on a weekend next month!

On creativity and genius

I really enjoyed this 20-minute video of Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat Pray Love, speaking on creativity:

Highlights of the week

• helping Madeline prepare a "repeating pattern" for her show 'n' tell this week. We had fun stringing some foam beads together.
• learning new things in my dance class. I learned new steps for St. Patrick's Day (hard shoe) and started learning another Reel (soft shoe). We also worked on a new ending for our group piece for Mosaic. That's a lot to learn in one night!
• having Rhonda attend the Brownies Mother(or Grandma or Auntie)-Daughter Spa Night with Sophia on Tuesday so I could attend my dance class. They had a great time together and I'm so glad I didn't have to miss all the new stuff in my class. It's really hard to catch up. Thanks again, Rhonda!
• being incredibly inspired by my LOM (Library of Memories) workshop all week. It's so awesome to take this class as a returning student with a good chunk of the framework already in place. I'm practically bursting with ideas for scrapbooking projects. Just wish I had more time for these things!
• getting rid of nine bottles of household cleaners (Fantastic, Lysol, Vim, Pledge, Windex...) on Regina-FullCircle.* I am SO happy this is done!
• making some progress on reorganizing our laundry room. This is a big job so it's going to take a long time to do properly, but we're getting there. It's already so much better than a month ago. (Thanks, Laurel, for having the girls over Saturday afternoon, again!)
• gathering all of our holiday/celebration (Christmas, Valentines, Easter, Halloween, and birthday) and gift wrapping stuff into one deep, newly-shelved closet in the basement. Nice to have it all together.
• getting three months of photos selected and printed (Feb '09, Aug '04, and Jul '07). I don't know how long I can keep this up, but if I could get three months printed per week, I'd be done in 11 weeks. I'd like that.
• seeing friends at a Norwex party Friday evening. The consultant is a friend I rarely see because she lives in Swift Current, and I don't see the hostess often enough even though she lives here in Regina. It was great to see both of them and others!
• introducing a new chart I created to encourage good habits in the girls and seeing some great success with it. I'll have to write more about it during the week.
• making my January and February 12 of 12 scrapbook pages. I love this concept!
• overhearing this: Sophia (loudly), "Where's daddy?" Neil (from the basement), "Why?" Sophia, as she heads down the stairs, "Because I have to give you a hug!" She had been looking at her Lenten Calendar from school.

*I quit using many chemicals 7 or 8 years ago when I started using Norwex products, and I didn't know how to dispose of the stuff properly so it just sat in our laundry room collecting dust. On Friday morning, I looked on the internet and made a couple calls to find out how to dispose of them once and for all, and was told I would have to wait for the city to have their household hazardous waste day -- in the FALL. No way! Yes, it had been years, but I needed them outta here now, not later. Then I thought, why not post them on Freecycle (or in my community, Regina-FullCircle)... and voila! I had four responses within minutes, and two hours later, they were GONE from my house! (I had eight responses altogether.) Now, what else can I freecycle/fullcircle?

February 12 of 12

These are my twelve photos from February 12. I really enjoy putting these photo grids together in Photoshop Elements. I use a template created by Cathy Z, available here: 12/12.

This weekend, I realized that another 12th will be here shortly (how'd that happen?!), so I decided I'd better get busy and make my pages from January and February -- and then I went ahead and did that even though it was not on my huge to-do list for the weekend. Oh well; I think it's good to squeeze these things in once in awhile!

I went super simple and created another template for the words. I thought about playing around with letter stickers or stamps for the date/title, but decided against it; I need this process to be fast! Plus, I chose not to go deep or reflective with the text, so it's just a straight-forward list of what the pictures are about. Now that I've done this, future pages will be very quick and easy. Here's the end result:

Related: The 12 of 12 blog and my photos from January 12.

Birthday party photos

I have finally posted photos from the girls' birthday parties!
I posted them on a private website because other people's children are in the photos. If you already have access to the website I use to share photos of my children, then you can go there and click on the Birthday Parties link in the left column. If not, and you would like to see the party photos, please leave me a comment or send me an email. Thanks!

Good ol' Facts of Life

 
  I didn't know what to call this hair style
  last night, but it came to me today...
  It's: Jo from The Facts of Life!

  Hmmm, what other 80s television hair
  can we recreate -- without hairspray?!

Highlights of the week

• eating at Crave on Monday evening after the girls' dance class. It was a steak supper fundraiser for a relative of Neil's who's still in hospital recovering from an ATV accident that happened in January.
• organizing my current photos (i.e., those I have printed from the past five years) into albums with six months per album (or "storage binder" in LOM speak). These albums are temporary storage that will feed my scrapbooking projects in the future.
• getting photos printed from July 2004 and January 2005. I'm jumping around to keep it interesting and to have more periods printed for the time being. I think I'll rotate through years now. Next up: Feb09, Jul07, Aug04, Feb 05, Feb06... It makes sense to me anyway!
• eating the delicious Tatonka Torte Neil made this weekend (recipe from Rocking C Ranch). We've had this several times before but not for quite awhile. (I just went looking for the recipe online so I could share it with you (easily), and lo and behold I found my own food blog from the past. I almost forgot about it!)
• eating the Gingered Apple Crisp Sophia and I made this weekend. One of my favourite desserts. Mmmm.
• hearing Georgia's new version of "yes". She (who used to say "yes" very clearly) now says, "yep, I do!" but very fast like, "yepidoo!" and sometimes "yepidoobidoo!" For example, "Georgia, do you want to get in the tub now?" "Yepidoo!" Gotta love her enthusiasm!
• staying focused and getting lots of stuff done at home this weekend. This was the second of three free weekends in a row and I'm trying to make the most of them, knowing all too well they're hard to come by -- and will be scarce in the coming months.
• going through the bins of baby clothes size 0-6 months, and choosing items to keep in the girls' treasure boxes. The girls enjoyed helping me with this task as well. We just kept two outfits, one pair of shoes and booties, and items knit by relatives for each of the girls.
• sending the girls to Chuck E. Cheese's with L&B this afternoon. Thanks Laurel! Having the kids happily occupied elsewhere is a huge help to me.
• brushing and doing all the girls hair after their bath this evening. I love doing hair when the girls are willing, and they all wanted their hair done tonight (in special ponytails; three elastics each).